[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 2 - Invasion

The realization gradually set in as Freddy took several shaky steps back, “Oh fuck me, it’s a passage!”

Shuffle.

“Ggegek!”

“Ggeheg!”

“Ggonggi!”

Cloaked and masked miniature humanoids popped their heads above the grass, one after another. Freddy saw the jagged daggers in their grip, and without any further hesitation, he ran right back to the street, screaming bloody murder.

He ran like mad, swinging the bag with the can of beans as he sprinted through the middle of the road, nearly tripping on one of the many potholes.

Barely catching a breath, he managed to yell out, “Passage! Run for your lives!”

The few groups of people looked, and everyone was up on their feet within moments.

A horde of tiny, humanoid creatures ran out from behind the building. The people screamed and ran, tripping over nothing as they scattered. The locked doors of buildings were pounded on, over and over, as the people begged to be let inside, away from the incoming danger.

For many, it was already too late.

The monsters pouring onto the streets were fast, frighteningly so. They dashed and landed on people within seconds, pulling tiny, nasty daggers from nowhere and cutting throats open, disemboweling with a single swift movement and piercing hearts with lethal precision.

Freddy saw a young woman’s decapitated body drop dead to the ground, blood pooling over her body faster than he thought possible, and he whimpered, unable to get the gruesome picture out of his head.

A loud whoosh could be heard every few seconds, and a scream usually followed, if the victims could muster even that. Whenever those things did that supernaturally quick dash, it made an ominous sound, quickly becoming associated with another innocent life being taken.

Freddy’s heartbeat hastened every time he heard another dash and felt his back tighten, expecting a blade to soon be embedded into it.

Whoosh.

Whoosh.

Whoosh.

The haunting sounds grew louder, and Freddy couldn’t help but turn around. One of the creatures had just finished stabbing a man to death, and as he turned to face it, it turned to face him as well.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.” Making a mad dash, Freddy’s breath came raggedly, and his legs burned like hell, but there was no time to care. The pitter-patter of that thing’s tiny feet grew louder in his ears until finally–

Whoosh.

There was no time to think. Out of pure reflex, he spun the bag behind his body, and as he turned, he came mask to face with the creature flying at him.

Everything moved in slow motion as Freddy watched the can of beans collide directly with the creature's head.

Crack.

The impact shattered the fragile can and spilled its contents into the bag, which tore, sending a rain of legumes over the street, but it also knocked the attacker away, and Freddy could hear its weapon clatter on the ground.

It was still alive, and as Freddy watched it try to get up, he rushed to grab the jagged dagger.

Then, without even thinking, he ran at the small creature and stabbed it approximately twenty-eight times in its back in the span of ten or so seconds while screaming, “Die, die, die….” like a maniac, ignoring its yelps of agony until they ceased entirely.

With the weapon in his left hand and the torn grocery bag in the other, Freddy continued his sprint away from the invasion.

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.

Several creatures appeared beside their mutilated comrade, and soon they turned their gazes to Freddy’s back, “Gge! Gghegghegghe gheeee!”

“Oh fuck they’re angry!” His steps quickened, but the pitter-patter instantly followed, and just like before, he heard them catching up at frightening speed.

Dagger clenched in his left hand, he wondered whether he should try to fight it out but instantly realized how stupid that would be. Yet, he didn’t let go of the weapon. Spite billowed in his heart, and anger set in along with the panic.

‘I’ll take one of your bastards with me if I have to!’

The adrenaline pushed his legs faster than he ever believed he could run, his gaze rapidly searched for any hope of escape, and soon, his eyes met with a man in a black suit.

Grasping onto the faint hope that it wasn’t just some drunk partygoer, Freddy screamed, “Help! Help me!”

The man suddenly vanished.

Whoosh.

Once more, Freddy turned around, betting on one final, wild swing. However, the moment his eyes turned behind his back, he knew it was already too late as he saw the creature nearly on top of him, dagger poised to strike.

Suddenly, a spear came flying out of nowhere, impaling its throat and pinning it to a wall.

Freddy tripped, dropping to the ground and tumbling away, nearly cutting himself on the dagger.

The man he had seen just a moment ago appeared out of nowhere, and several others soon appeared beside him.

A burly man dressed in fashionable clothing ran in, swinging a furiously hot blade to cleave one of the invaders in half. Arrows flew out of nowhere, striking the creatures with lethal precision. Some were killed instantly, and others were gruesomely wounded as they rushed to hide between the buildings.

A woman in a red dress, holding a massive hammer, appeared, jumping off the top of a building to pulverize one of the fleeing creatures into mush, turning around and following up with a smash to another’s skull.

The spear wielder pulled his weapon from the wall, and Freddy watched the dead, cloaked humanoid drop to the ground.

The other two paused and hesitantly observed the man.

The spear wielder dashed at speeds far greater than even the little creatures could manage and cleanly stabbed through their heads with rapid, snappy thrusts, leaving perfectly circular holes behind.

His savior turned around, and Freddy tried thanking him but found his throat had seized up.

The man waved him down and spoke rapidly, “Hello there! Please wait until we sort the break. We will need you for the witness report.”

There was nothing he could say to that. The man ran around in the vicinity, gathering more terrified survivors.

Time flew by simultaneously unnaturally slowly and unusually quickly. All that Freddy could remember were flashes of talking to someone else, and seeing others crying, calling names that would likely soon appear on an obituary.

It just felt so surreal. An unregistered passage like this? Appearing in the middle of a fucking city!?

He couldn’t believe it. Soon enough, he was broken out of his strange stupor, sitting on the street next to several others as men and women in uniforms gathered around the crowds.

One of them wrapped Freddy in a foil blanket, and he didn’t understand why at first. Soon, he noticed the bone-chilling cold that filled his body and his almost wholly wet clothes. Sweat covered his body from head to toe, and he was shivering uncontrollably.

Once it was his turn, the paramedic led him to a chair where an officer told him to sit. They checked him for injuries and blared a light crystal into his eyes for some reason.

They asked him a few general questions about his well-being, and Freddy answered curtly or just nodded.

Suddenly, someone mentioned the word ‘insurance’ somewhere in the background, and Freddy perked up, immediately cured of his trauma.

Insurance? Where? Who?

“Sir, are you alright?” The officer before him waved a hand before his face, and Freddy blinked.

“Huh? Ah, yes, I’m doing swell. I have a quick question, if you don’t mind, of course.”

The man raised an eyebrow but soon nodded.

“Brilliant,” Freddy said, “I just want to know real quick, do we get uhm… Any form of… Reimbursement for this horribly traumatizing event?”

The man shook his head, “I’m not a lawyer, kiddo. You’ll have to check that later with someone.”

A uniformed woman approached their position, and the officer turned to her a bit, then back to Freddy. He paused, turning to the woman again, and forwarded Freddy’s question to her.

She thought about it for a moment and spoke, “I think yes. Wait.” After turning to Freddy, she asked, “Are you a resident of this district or one directly neighboring it?”

“Yes! I live in District twenty-one!”

“Oh, no, uhm, that’s not directly neighboring.” She shook her head.

“What!? You go directly from one to the other!”

“The borders are close, but they need to be touching to qualify.”

“That’s bullshit!”

The man lifted a hand to soothe Freddy, “Relax, sir, please. If you have general insurance, you will still get reimbursement.” After that, he grabbed a pen and wrote something down on a notepad.

Freddy looked like he swallowed piss. He did not have any insurance. Not even medical.

“Wait! I-I-I I used to live here! And the border is so, so close. Does that not count!?” He spat, with a strange shiver in his voice.

Without raising his head, the man responded, “Look, you can get a lawyer and take it to court. Maybe you have a case.”

Tears pooled around his eyes upon hearing that. Sure, it was a traumatizing tragedy, but if payment was involved… Well, he’d get over it.

“Wait! Sorry, uhm, I–I also killed! Yes! I killed one of them!”

The two officers shot him a death glare, and Freddy rushed to explain, “The monsters! One of the monsters! No-Not people! Monsters. I killed one.”

The officer in front of him straightened his posture and looked Freddy in the eye, “Can you please describe in more detail?”

“Yes, yes, I can! Uh, I was… I carried a bag. Beans. I had beans in the bag. Where is my bag?” Freddy looked around frantically, and the man pointed at his hands, where Freddy was still holding the broken bag, “Yes! This bag! There was a can of beans in it! And then I–I swung it! Like whoosh, I heard the sound they made while dashing, and then boom, the can of beans in the bag hit one in its head, uh, and then I stabbed it, and, uh, it died.”

“Uh-huh. Right.” The officer nodded as he wrote something down, “Can of beans. On an unrelated note, you should probably seek psychiatric evaluation after this event.”

“What!? No, I’m not crazy! I–I really did it! Look!” Freddy pulled the jagged dagger out of the foil blanket wrapping his body, a weapon that he had somehow managed to conceal through the paramedic check up.

Instantly, the officer reached for the weapon, grabbing it by the dried bloody blade and firmly pulling it out of Freddy’s hand, seemingly without fear of cutting himself.

“I’m not sure where you picked this up, sir, but even if you’ve killed one, payment isn’t awarded for doing that if you’re a civilian. Nobody wants to incentivize unqualified residents to put their lives in danger.” The man carefully handed the weapon to a colleague and turned to Freddy again, with a hint of curiosity in his eye, “However, if you really did do it, you could perhaps manifest a prime vestige.”

Mood dropping like a stone, Freddy leaned back. Yeah, right, a vestige. May as well buy a lottery ticket.

With a last-ditch effort, Freddy pointed at the officer carrying the dagger away, “Do I get anything for the dagger?”

The man shook his head, and Freddy nodded, disappointment clear in his expression, “I see.”

Before he was allowed to leave, Freddy was shaken down to ensure he hadn’t taken any other dangerous objects from one of the invaders. The plastic bag was confiscated as well, for whatever reason.

With that done, the man asked whether he had anything else to report or further questions. He didn’t, so the officer moved on to the next victim.

Freddy was about to head back home. Yet, he paused. Every dark corner of the streets before him resembled a death trap, and he felt a deep sense of panic overtaking him.

One of the officers put a hand on his shoulder and told him that if he waited a bit, he would get a ride home with any other victim who wanted it. So, he stayed and was eventually escorted into a carriage that was indeed a lot bigger inside.

The vehicle was filled with exhausted-looking people, and many had vacant eyes. Random blood splatters covered some of them; for better or worse, it didn’t look like it was their own.

The light in the carriage provided ample illumination for Freddy to confirm that he was indeed one of them. And judging by the amount of blood on his shirt, he was easily in the upper echelon of blood covered victims.

The others glanced at him surreptitiously, and Freddy avoided eye contact; eventually, his name was called when they reached his address.

Once he left, he hurriedly rushed into his building, anxiously checking every shadow around him for movement, and by the end, he had entered a half-run.

After fumbling with the keys to the entrance to his building, he closed the doors a little harder than he intended and winced at the loud crash.

The staircase was an intimidating opponent after such a day, but Freddy forced himself to walk up. Once he entered the hallway of his apartment's floor, he groaned at the time.

It was 2 AM.

Yeah. No. His fear of his boss wasn’t enough to stop him from taking a day off tomorrow. Freddy groaned hard as he realized he had to go down to the first floor again. He hurriedly rushed down the stairs until he reached the contact tablet.

Someone opened the door to the building, and he spotted James and Sharon stumbling into the hallway, clearly drunk out of their minds. The faint light of the hallway made it hard to see, so they spotted and recognized him far before they did his blood-splattered clothing.

Once they came close enough to see it, Sharon screamed, and James fell on his ass, whimpering in fright, “Jesus Christ, Freddy! What the hell happened!?”

He waved his hands to soothe them, “Don’t worry, it's not my blood!”

James’ eyes widened, “Then whose fucking blood is it!?”

Freddy rushed to explain, “It’s a… Oh, God, there was a break and… Monsters. Just…” He pinched his forehead and sighed, “You’ll hear on the news tomorrow.”

They calmed a bit, and Sharon rushed him apologetically, grabbing his face and examining him for any injuries, “Are you okay!? Do you need any help?”

“Don’t worry… I’m… I’m fine.”

James got up and approached him as well, “Dear God, Freddy, look at you! I’ve never seen this much blood in my life!”

Sharon grabbed his arm, and Freddy pushed her back out of reflex, more aggressively than he intended, making both of them back away from him.

Putting his hands up and down a few times, he finally spoke, “I’m… Look, we’ll talk tomorrow. Just…” He pointed at the tablet, “I have to get something done, and I–I…” Freddy turned around, hiding the blood splatters on his clothing, “I really need some privacy now.”

They nodded and walked up the stairs, shooting him a few worried glances as he turned to the contact device.

With a slight tremor to his touch, it took him a few times to correctly write his boss’ name on the small stone surface, but eventually, the tablet lit up.

Freddy put a few coins into the open slot, parting with three dollars, which was a total scam, and started writing on the tablet. He had to make the letters relatively small to fit his entire message. Even then, the contents came across as rather curt.

Not even the threat of getting fired was enough to get him to cough up another three dollars, so he sent the message and returned to climbing the stairs.

His legs and feet ached as he pulled himself up with great effort. Once he was at his apartment again, he unlocked the door and went inside.

The smell of his room immediately reminded him that he was supposed to wash his clothes and sheets today, but that could wait until tomorrow.

Hurriedly, he took his bloodied clothes off and threw them on the floor, hiding them behind the trash can. Breathing raggedly, he backed away but soon calmed himself and plopped his stinky body onto his filthy sheets.

‘Oh, yeah… I guess I’ll be eating sleep for dinner tonight.’ Or so he thought.

Yet, he found the prospect of falling asleep impossible. He didn’t feel tired. To his own surprise, he didn’t even feel bad. Once he calmed down a bit, Freddy felt fine.

So he got up. If he wasn’t going to work tomorrow, he might as well stay up as late as he wanted.

After getting off his bed, he walked to the chest and opened it. There was a pile of books in a corner, and he pulled out one from the bottom.

Magic Before Ether, the title said.

It was Freddy’s favorite book. It talked about the once glorious technology mankind had achieved before the Rift took it away.

Cars. Televisions. Computers. Airplanes.

True, ether allowed for things that mankind hadn’t achieved even back then, but that didn’t mean it had been impossible.

Most of the old technology had been recreated in new ways, but Freddy couldn’t help but admire the people's dreams back then.

They dared dream of achievements such as Dyson spheres, interplanetary travel, sentient robots, and so on.

A big part of him wondered whether greater heights could be achieved now or back then.

Both eras had their advantages and perils. Life hadn’t been easy at all back then, but at least…

Thump.

The book's covers slammed together, and Freddy found his heart beating rapidly again. He put the book back into the chest and closed it. The room felt suffocating, so he opened the window.

The fresh, outside air didn’t make him feel any better. The sound of music still echoing far and wide filled his ears. He put a hand to his mouth as puke rushed up, and he couldn’t hold it back.

There was nothing to throw up besides a few drops of yellow liquid. He watched them fall to the streets below and quickly shut the shades, closing the window behind them.

The sheets wrapped tightly around his body, and he curled up in bed. He couldn’t sit still, so he got up to check whether his doors were locked.

Back in bed again, for the first time in his life, he felt grateful that his apartment was so small and there was nowhere anything could hide.

Yet, there was a bit of space under him. He moved to the side and checked, laughing a bit. How stupid. So old and still scared of monsters beneath his bed.

The bit of space above his chest, where his clothes basked hung off the ceiling, was out of sight. So he bent forward enough to confirm nothing was there either. Grabbing the chest, he opened it, too, just in case.

As he checked every corner of his room and once again confirmed his door was locked, he finally dropped onto his bed.

Yet, he again got out of his bed and moved the chest in front of the door.

He grabbed the handle on the window, tightening it and making sure it was extra closed.

Checking behind the garbage can, for a moment, he thought his clothes had shifted, and he jumped back, yelling a bit. He kicked the can forward and on top of the bloodied clothes.

That was enough for him to return to bed.

The raging sound of his heartbeat pounded in his ears, and the taste of acid was in the back of his throat. The muffled sounds of the outside gradually silenced, and eventually, exhaustion finally won as the long-awaited grasp of sleep whisked him away.

***

Freddy was awakened by a sharp pain that felt like it was coming from everywhere on his body. A bright flash of green light soon followed it, and the pain abruptly stopped.

He woke up with a jolt, looking around the room in a panic, “Was that sleep paralysis? A nightmare? What the hell, man…? It just keeps getting…”

The faint light from the early morning faintly illuminated his room, but it was enough to spot something unusual sitting on his bed.

A green face that looked as if it were stretched over a round ball sat on his sheets, staring at him and grinning widely, “What are you looking at, you fucking bitch!?”